Read a Pacific Northwest, liberal perspective on world, national, and local politics. From majestic Redmond, Washington - the Northwest Progressive Institute Official Blog.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Supreme Court to EPA: You're In Charge of Environmental Protection

From the Executive Director: We're pleased this evening to welcome a new contributor, Micah, to the Official Blog. His first post is as follows - we're delighted to have him as part of our team.

Putting an end to years of confounding decisions from Bush appointees to ignore science, the Supreme Court has finally ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency is, in fact, in charge of the safeguarding the environment (imagine that!) From The Guardian:
This week's ruling by the US supreme court essentially mandating that the Environmental Protection Agency regulate greenhouse gas emissions will, I think, one day be seen as a turning point in American politics.

For the past six years, the Bush administration has essentially run public policy on faith. Scientific studies indicate educating students about safe sex does more to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids than programmes that preach abstinence? Fuggedaboudit. It doesn't gel with prevailing religious fervor.

Science suggests evolution is far less than just one among many equally valid theories? No way - that's not what the Bible says. The overwhelming preponderance of evidence indicates that global warming is real and is directly tied to human activity? Aggressively pretend the evidence doesn't exist, and hope that faith in its nonexistence trumps all the evidence to the contrary.
The Supreme Court ruling doesn't ensure that the EPA will definitely regulate greenhouse gases, but it does acknowledge that global warming is a problem, as well as lay the onus of emissions regulation on the EPA.

It's no wonder the "President" resents the concept of checks and balances. Next thing you know, they'll be forcing the administration to actually protect endangered species or stop torture. Wild, crazy liberal ideas.

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